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I'm faced with a UX problem of looking for ways to position a website to increase attendance at future "real world" events, and I'm remembering a study once conducted along these lines (details a bit hazy):

University students were given a presentation on the benefit of receiving flu shots and instructed on where to go to get them. One session's group received no further materials, while the other's group were given a map and asked to pick a time to report. The attendance rate in the latter group was substantially higher than the former.

I can't seem to find mentions of it online anywhere, though, and if anyone could point me towards more information on this or any other related study it would be highly appreciated.

The study is mostly how you remember (though it was tetanus instead of the flu). Critically, the manipulation was intended to increase the the availability of receiving a tetanus shot by having rehearsed the steps needed to get one. Students were given a map of the campus with the health center circled, and were asked to review their schedule and find a time they might be able to go--however, they did not make an appointment. Thus, the commitment was only to themselves.

"...in disease prevention messages, gain-framed appeals, which
emphasize the advantages of compliance with the communicator’s
recommendation, are statistically significantly more persuasive than
loss-framed appeals, which emphasize the disadvantages of
noncompliance."

The difference appears quite small, however; maybe not what you were looking for.

Unfortunately, I don't believe that's the one. That seems to be more on the topic of expounding on benefits of compliance vs. the negatives of non-compliance, whereas the one I have in mind has more to do with a correlation between early commitment and follow-through.
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Samuel HulickFeb 6 '12 at 22:43